For the first release of 2025, it’s with great pleasure that we welcome an old friend to the Lazy Days family. French & Polish (ex-Londoner and now Cape Town based) producer Simbad (aka SMBD), is a key player in the world of modern electronic music. His list of collaborators reads like a “Who’s who” of the best in the business : Coldcut, Ben Westbeech, Quantic, Fred P, Deetron, Karizma, Atjazz, Jose James, and the list goes on (and on…). Simbad has been a close collaborator of Gilles Peterson and his label Brownswood. Gilles considers him to be one of his favorite DJs and made him a resident at his Worldwide Festival. Praise indeed! Prolific and eclectic, his musical output as a producer includes Hip Hop (Roots Manuva), Dubstep (Mala), Brazilian (Seu Jorge), Afro Beat (Seun Kuti), Techno (Fred P, Jeff Mills), Broken Beat (Bugz In The Attic, Afronaut) and of course all things House (Local Talk, Atjazz Record Company, Defected, BBE…). The project came together during Fred Everything’s last tour in South Africa when he asked Simbad if he had any tracks for the label. The next day, a gigantic folder of unreleased music from Simbad’s vault arrived in his Inbox that included many rough ideas written between 2012 and 2016. The main track Dream On features Kira on vocals, a relatively well-known hip-hop sample, and an infectious bass line. It comes with its instrumental version also. Facing Our Future is a beautiful arpeggiated ambient analog piece, and Sun Snack is one of the deepest house tunes you’ve heard in a long time. On remix duty, we have another old friend of ours, Giom. After a House hiatus of a few years, concentrating on his band PREP, Giom is back in the studio. His interpretation of Dream On is like he never went away. It’s definitely a 2024 version of him that we love. Deep & quirky.